Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said on January 17 he veto the law that extends the use of Albanian language in the country as he thinks it is unconstitutional.

The draft law was adopted by parliament last week in a session boycotted by the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. The EU flagship law envisages all state bodies and institutions as well as state-owned companies, commissions and legal entities will use the language spoken by over 20% of the population - the Albanian language - as an official language. Ethnic Albanians make up about a quarter of the Macedonian population of 2.1mn.

The law opens “a danger of constitutional redefinition and jeopardizing the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Macedonia,” Ivanov said in a statement posted on the presidential website.

Ivanov said that the law was endorsed without a public debate and experts’ opinions, as well as without the opposition.

“This law introduces very expensive parallelism in all state bodies and institutions that will lead to their complete blockade and dysfunction,” Ivanov underlined.

According to the constitution, the president is obliged to sign the law if it is endorsed in the parliament in a second vote.

The law was an important factor in persuading MPs from parties representing Macedonia’s ethnic Albanian minority to back the government led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, but it is fiercely opposed by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, which claims it undermines Macedonia’s sovereignty.